SVI'CLURE 



ADDRESS DELIVEi 

TTHE WHIG FES1 

JULY 4THie^ 



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ADDRESS 



48 



DELIVERED ATf THE 



WHIG FESTIVAL, 



aj3 'tPSIlS (Sa'if ^ ^i^ I?2^^3S®3^a£o 



ON THE 






FOURTH OF JULY, 1834. 



E Y W M . B . M ' C L I R E, ESQ 

OF PITTSBURGH 



i 634. 



PRINTED BY 

WILSON & MARKS- 



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PiUshurgh.3u\yl, 183 i. 
To Wm. B. M'Clure, Esq. 

Dear Sir — The undersigned, apoointed for that purpose by the Oom- 
mittee of Arrangement, request tor publication, a copy of the address 
delivered by you at the Whig Festival, on the 4th inst. 

The political Heavens have become dark with clouds of portentous 
import, ;md the slumbering energies of the people sliould be awakened 
ity every argument in the power of the patriot. Your speech excite<l 
the enthusiasm of the vast multitude whom you addressed, and called 
forth their indignation, as you developed the manifold usurpations of 
the Executive. Let the same feelings pervade the hearts of the whole 
American people, and our country will be safe from the machinations 
of her internal enemies. 

We are, very respectfully, 

Your fellow citizens, 

WALTER FORWARD, 
WILSON McCANDLESS, 
JOHN P. BAKE WELL, 
JOHN McKEE, 
JAMES ARTHURS. 



Fittsburgh, July 7,1834. 
Gentlemen — 

The sternness of the times, renders it necessary, tiiat every voice, b« 
it forcible or feeble, should be raised in defence of the constitution and 
the country. 

Each tinkling rivulet pays its humble tribute to the deep, and though 
J[)y feeble voice, be but the faint reverberation of an echo, it too shall be ^x 

sounded. I am. Your obedient serv't., 

WM. B. McC-LURE. 

To Messrs. Waiter Forward, "S^c. 






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ADDRESS. 



Fellov/ Citizens : 

When I behold this living mass of patriotism, of intelli- 
gence, of virtue ; when I look upon this vast assemblage of 
my fellow citizens, operated on by the same causes, impell- 
ed by the same motive, actuated by the same impulse, and 
met for the same common object ; I am constrained to ex- 
claim, can it be possible, that our liberties are not immortal? 
Whigs of '34, and you, precious relics of the Whig party of 
of Te, that I see before me, we are all of one mind, we are all 
of one party, let us unmask our feelings, let us open our hearts 
Jet us throw up the curtain of ceremony to the very sky ,and hold 
communion and fellowship with each other, on topics that 
vitally interest us all, on subjects that so nearly concern our 
temporal salvation. 

This day has been styled, the sabbath day of freedom, and 
-jur country has been denominated the sanctuary of liberty ; 
but alas ! alas ! our sabbaths have been profaned, our altars i||| 
have been violated; instead of the vestal fire, and the in- 
cense, the obscene fumes, reeking from the Presidential 
" kitchen," insult our nostrils, darken our political heavens, 
and endanger our health. '^ 

On this very spot where we are now standing, and with- ^ 
in the recollection of some of you, the Farmer ploughed his 
fields, with his rifle slung over his shoulder; on this very 
spot, the war whoop has wakened the sleep of the cradle; 
on this very spot, the blood of your sons has fattened your 
cornfields; on this very spot, the savage veil, and shrill 

A 2 



6 

vening whistle, has made the infdiit. with instinctive hor- 
roi, cling closer to its mother's bosom, and the sleepless 
father snatch his rifle from the wall. 

Elevate then, I beseech you, your feelings of patriotism, 
for we have this day far worse enemies to contend with. — 
The ground whereon you are standing, is holy ground ; and 
far from me, and from those who hear me, be such frigid 
philosophy, as may conduct us, indifferent, and unmoved, 
over any ground that has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, 
and virtue. That man is little to be envied, whose patriot- 
ism would not gain force upon the plains of Marathon, and 
whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of 
lona. 

Fellow Citizens, almost the last sentinel upon the watch 
tower of our liberties has fallen asleep. The bosom friend 
and companion of Washington, the friend of rational liberty 
throughout the world, the hero of three revolutions, and the 
patriot without stain, the venerable Lafayette, has fallen 
asleep ; death has canonised his bones, and affixed to his 
fame the seal and stamp of certainty, because no man whilst 
living, is beyond the reach of human frailty. He has mere- 
ly set out, to gain that land of patriots, who have preceded 
him, with Washington at their head, on their journey to the 
clear upper sky of fame. Illustrious man ! Beauty will 
shower pyramids of roses upon thy tomb. Clouds of the 
incense of sincere grief for thee, will arise from congregated 
nations, and pity for thee, will weep her fountains dry. I 
will not insult your grief by enumerating his virtues, able 
tongues will speak his eulogy, let us with more expressive 
silence, muse upon our mutual bereavement. 

Fellow Citizens, let us be true to our party, let us be true 
to our principles, let us be true to our country, let us be 
true to ourselves. Political power is a weak engine, com- 



pared with individual intelligence, patriotism and effort. 
Already, the inmates of the livid dens of kitchen despotism, 
are trembling- for their fate: already, the reign of the " terror" 
of lamp black and fish oil, is passing away. Already, the 
knights of the dripping pan, the sauce pan, and the turn- 
spit, are growling and snarling over the last marrow bone, 
and all the scullions in the cabinet improper, are adverti- 
sing for dirty work. " Othello's occupation's gone." 

Yet a little while, and the whole Jackson party will have 
bid the world "good night." That party, which bestrode the 
earth like a Colossus, and under whose huge legs we peep- 
ed about, to find ourselves dishonorable graves, that party 
is to day, by some kind of legerdemain, snugly packed in- 
to the corner of " Concert Hall." Yet a little while, and 
those partizans who yelp loudest in the kennel of Jackson- 
ism, will have howled their last syllable of dolor — they will 
have fawned, and whined, and whimpered, and then hushed 
to peace. Yet a little while, and the most clamorous, and 
vociferous of the party, will modestly request their friends 
gently to tickle their thorax, with their fore finger, in or- 
der, that they may disgorge every drop of liquor they have 
3ver gulped, in toasting the unhallowed cause. But, why 
should I withhold the pleasing news ? the very next gale 
that sweeps from the general government, across the AWe. 
ghenies, will bear upon its wings the grateful intellio-ence 

that the whole kitchen cabinet, has gone to pot, 

" Dust thou art, 
And unto dust thou shalt return." 

No, no, the kitchen cabinet cannot even cheat the worm 
of its reversionary corruption. 

Bless me, what a yelping, and howling and growling, a- 
mong the jowlers of the kitchen, what a groaning of cup- 



8 

boards, what a clatter of knives and forks, what a jostling 

of pots, what a crash of crockery. 

" The Kitchen cabinet, the floods, 
The Kitchen Cabinet, the woods, 
The Kitchen cabinet, Valence's echoes ring-." 

My curiosity has often prompted me to make the enquiry, 
what manner of creatures really did infest the culinary de- 
partment, and constituted the cabinet, which has been so 
appropriately christened ; all my efforts at an explanation 
have proved, hitherto, unavailing, and my interrogataries 
were uniformly dismissed, without being able to ob- 
tain any satisfactory intelligence ; I was only able to ascer- 
tain, that like the description Longinus gives of genius, or 
Milton's description of sin and death, or more peculiarly, 
that sublime poet's description of the " imp of famine," they 
were enveloped in vapor and in mystery. I could only 
glean a hint, some scanty information ; and the only discrip- 
tion or definition I ever received was, that 

" Their coats they were black. 
And their trowsers were blue, 
With a hole in the rear, for their tails to come through." 

I have not, fellow citizens, as is usual on such occasions, 
given you a detailed history of our revolution, and the great 
and good men who brought it about. I will not, at this par- 
ticular juncture, dwell upon those historical facts which you, 
and which the world have long since got by heart. Suffice 
it to remark, that all the sages of our glorious revolution 
were heroes, as well as statesmen, that it was grand in its 
conception, heroic in its undertaking, and peculiarly felici- 
tous in its final accomplishment. The sternness of the 
times, makes it more emphatically our duty to attend to the 
present, than to the past or future. 

Wherever there is liberty enough left to be worth talking 



9 

about, there will bean honest difference of opinion , and where 
there is difference of opinion, there will be party— party is a 
wholesome medicine, faction is a poisonous monster, but 
even the storm of faction is preferable to the torpid calm of 
despotism. The greatest and best of our statesmen have 
thought differently upon political subjects, and if they have 
done so, we are the better for it-^Adams, Jefferson and many 
others ; why need I mention such familiar names. They 
were like these sycamores, under whose shade, we celebiate 
this day, shooting their giant trunks, and throwing their 
gnarled arms midway to the skies, and if their branches tow- 
er aloft in different directions, it is but that they may cast 
a wider, a cooler, and a more refreshing shade. 

The velocity with v/hich the name of the whi^ party per- 
vaded the continent, is a demonstration, that it has its origin 
in the past political history of our country, and consequent- 
ly, in truth, and that it is the only appropriate name that 
could have been adopted. 

The worst nick name the administration can conjure up, 
has been applied to our party, and fellow citizens, what a la- 
mentable and wretched attempt, at wit, or humor, or satire, 
it is. We are uniformly designated b> it, as the " wig" 
party. Now I think it would not be a difficult matter to 
prove to any reasonable man's satisfaction, that all who adopt, 
©r approve this ridiculous woid, either wear wigs them- 
selves or else stand in need of them ; because surely, sure- 
ly, fellow citizens, any head which could be guilty of per- 
petrating such a bald piece of wit as this is, must be too bar- 
ren for even hair to grow upon. 

Fellow Citizens, let us take a cursory view of the adminis- 
tration of our government, and see what a beautiful, simple 
machine it is fast becoming, to what a doubly ri vetted des- 
potism it is fast converging. 



10 

A Briareiis, like a god in a machine, sits in the centre of 
our political system, and with his hundied hands, touches 
all its springs ; and regulates, I ask pardon, deranges all its 
movements. He has deranged the currency, he has derang- 
ed the Post Office Department, he has deranged the Trea- 
sury Department, the Land Olnce Department, he has derang- 
ed government, and he is deranged himself; yes, he is drunk 
with flattery and power. The cup of flattery, if it does not 
like that of Circe, reduce men to beasts, is sure, if eagerly 
drained, to bring the best and ablest down to the level of 
fools. And pray, whom have we as the incumbent of the 
chief executive chair ? Why, a man in whom there is no 
more mercy, than milk in a male tiger; a man aloof from 
friendship and society; a man who lives like the lion in his 
desert, or the eagle on his rock — a man, who maintains his 
postulatum with all the firmness of stupidity, accustomed 
to be flattered, a man who has no heart to feel, and a face that 
cannot blush for the ruin he has wrought upon his country ; 
a man whose wrath is like the icy current of the Helles- 
jx)nt, it knows no retiring ebb — a man, the little fingei of 
whose executive usurpation weighs heavier, than the loins of 
all the Presidential encroachments, that have preceded him 
— -e man vA\o has not chastised his country with whips, but 
lashed with scorpions. To call his course tyranny, sub- 
limed into madness, would convey too faint an image. 

Amid the turbid waves of his stormy administration, have 
not the very worst of mortal men emerged to honor and to 
office? Are not men of scarified character and dog-eared 
reputation, now high in his confidence ? Has not the press 
groaned with licenced political blasphemies ? Has not wri- 
ting, has not printing impe'd calumny with her eagle wings, 
on which, as the poet says, immortal slanders fly? Have 
not the base minions of executive favor, flyblown every 



11 

part of our glorious constitulion, that was at all exposed? — =• 
Have not those maggots taken wing and infected all the de- 
partments of our government ? Look 1 say, if your sight is 
not blasted with images of hoiror already, look I say, 
through the yawning chasms of our national ruin, and sec 
every hour trifling all former knowings, see every day teem- 
ing with some new political Gorgon. 

Jackson, like Napoleon, whom he professes to have made 
his model, has drunk the cup of flattery to the very dregs — ■ 
he has reeled, he has staggered, he has fallen, there let him 
lie. 

Some who hear me, may, perhaps, think I have taken 
unwarantable liberties, with the chief executive of the na- 
tion. But friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears, 
you do forget that we have come to bury Cassar, not to 
praise him. 

Let us fellow citizens, by an easy gradation, take a lover's 
leap into the Post Office Department, a striking aualoo'y 
presents itself at first blush. If the executive is drunk with 
liatteiy and power, the head of this department, if rumor 
lies not, has looked through a distempered medium, for the 
last few years. The head of this department is a good na- 
tured, clever, gentlemanly man, a man, who 

^ Cherished his friend, and who relished a bumper, 
But one fault he had, and that one, was a thumper." 

Compared with the ability displayed in the management 
of this department, the financial talents of Neckar sink in- 
to insignificance, and the maladministration of Hastings in 
India, was a fool to it. Where shall we begin to anatomise 
this putrid limb tiiat hangs upon the body politic. I will 
•^ot disgust your moral sensibilities, with a recapitulation of 
its horrible violations of public decency, and dignity. You 
may consult the records of Judicial history, from the first 



12 

page of Dyer, to the last page of the last reporter ; you may 
search political history from Nimrod of Assyria, down t« 
Fredeiick of Prussia, for judicial or political precedent, or 
parallel, but in vain ; " none but thyself can be thy parallel." 
It bears however, some remote resemblance, to an obsolete 
case, reported in Cupid's Chancery Reports, the volume and 
page, have escaped my recollection. It is the case of the 
"Immortal Willy Wattle, 
Who was all for love, and a little for the bottle." 

But to be serious, was such a system of finance, as the 
late Senatorial report, on the Post Office Department, has 
recently developed, ever before heard of, or dreamed of 7 
An Exchequer, wherein extortion, was the assessor ; fraud 
the cashier; confusion, the accountant; concealment, the 
reporter; and oblivion, the remembrancer. In the adminis- 
tration of this department, has not confusion done his master 
piece? Do not the accounts of this department, transcend 
ail the powers of Arithmetic or Algebra, to equalise and 
settle? Have not the facts, which the committee of t^»e 
Senate, screwed from sullen, and reluctant, and interested, 
and costive witnesses, displayed such a system of rank vil- 
iainy, and opened to the public gaze, such a charnel house 
of corruption, that even destruction herself, sickens at the 
sio-ht? Will not these men who have thus squandered the 
revenue, and disgraced the nation, will not these archi- 
tects of ruin, these consummate blasters of human hopes, be 
supremely cursed with immortality ? And where is the 
improvement ? Where is the turnpike ? Where is the 
post road, to which those millions of the people's money have 
been appropriated? is there any monument, save that of ex- 
travagance, and corruption ? But I beg pardon fellow citi- 
zens, I see you are about to correct me, I see you antici- 
pate what is so obvious, that I really was not going to repeat 



13 

it. Yes, there is a highway which this administration, from 
the first hour it came into office, has labored without one 
moment's interruption, to construct, and it is nearly finished, 
and that fellow citizens, is the road to " ruin." 

Is it not a melancholy fact, all human advantages, confer 
more power of doing evil than good. Demolition is the work 
of a moment, it is easily accomplished, and the work of vul- 
gar and ordinary hands. But to construct, is a matter of 
skill; to demolish, brute force, and fury, are alone sufficient. 
Ah, fellow citizens, " there is something rotten in the state 
of Denmark." The times are out of joint, and the Whig 
party has been organised to set them right. 

Had such a system of fraud and peculation been puisued 
in any other country, where the laws are less proverbial for 
their lenity than ours, the aiders and abettors, the principals 
and the accessaries, before and after the fact, might have 
been pestered with a kind of hemp tax, which would have 
proved rather inconvenient to free respiration. They would 
have had to swing high as Haman, and free as air. Thev 
would have been under the necessity of dying, as the obser- 
vers of national manners tell us the merry Frenchman lives, 
that is, dancing between Heaven and earth. But why 
mince my meaning. They would have hanged between 
-arth and heaven, equally unworthy of both. 

Yet, fellow citizens, after all this, your whole hog Jack- 
son man will bristle up, if you presume but to mention the 
rain the executive has wrought. He wont permit you to 
hollow, even after you are hurt. Tell him the nation is dis- 
tressed, he grunts, glory ! Tell him, labor finds no employ- 
ment, and no pay — he ejaculates, no, (ejaculation belongs 
to piety, and your Jackson man must be a rank idolator,) I 
intended to say — he eructates from the bottom of his belly, 
riory, reform, hurrah for Jackson. " Tell him to take a sly 



14 

peep at the post office department, and he straightway howls 
a hosanna to the battle of New Orleans. Tell him, '* monev 
is scarce," and cannot be obtained on any terms. He di- 
nies the fact, " we have gold and silver in abundance, an^ 
the department you have just been abusing, will give yo -. 
half a " cord" for the asking; did not that dear, good, spirit 
ually minded old man O. B. Brown, get a thousand dolla c 
for presenting the department with one good drink of liquo.. 
and will he not be sent to heaven in a coach and four, intc 
the bargain, "toll free ?" "Why you anti- Jackson fool, dor.' 
you know that a man must live by his wits, why, almost al; 
the good Jackson men live upon the interest of their debts." 
That is a new method of subsisting that the Whigs have 
yet to learn. But, my fellow citizens, " my dear Jackson 
friend, just thrust your hand into your breeches pocket, up 
to the elbow, and lend me some of your loose change. I 
wish to purchase marketing and groceries, my children 
look emaciated and wretched, and my wife has been crying 
for the last ten days, and durmg that period, we have not 
had a crumb of bread in the house." What does my Jack 
son man say ? what does he do? what loop hole, what tricK, 
what device, can he resort to, to shield him from this open 
and apparent shame 1 what can he do ? what does he do 1 wh; 
he shakes his tail, and thanks God, he was not born a 
" bunty." 

Glory, fellow citizens, is a poor substitute for beef and 
bread. Men, like other animals, must propagate by the 
mouth — never, did oppression, light the nuptial toich, never 
did extortion, and usury, spread out the genial couch. 

Let no man dare to say that the awful increase in the cal- 
ender of crime is to be attributed to innate, moral corruption. 
No man knows the fearful amount of responsibility he is 
assuming, when he cuts off the incentives to honorable in- 



15 

tlustry, and its reward. The increase of crime is owing to 
the desperate energies of a starving, unemployed, and dis- 
contented people, who have had the legitimate objects, on 
which industry and energy spend themselves, rudely torn 
from them. No man knows the weakness of his nature un- 
til he is tempted. Here is an administration bankrupt in 
character, if not in credit — here is a people stretching forth 
is arms for employment — here is a nation holding out its 
.nands for bread. The robberies which are committed, and 
tiie blood which flows cannot be ascribed to a savao^e thirst 
for blood, or for revenge, but I repeat it — in hunger for 
bread, it is urgent necessity, superinduced by the stern- 
ness of the times. For all these blessings, we are indebted 
to a mad administration. 

Was not a dastardly attempt made to corrupt the Bank of 
the U. States ? and make its funds subservient to rank villian- 
r:y, and low ambition ? has not that institution come through 
its fiery trial, like the gold in its vaults, seven times purified? 
did not the administration come off limping with disgrace 
from the onset ? It was then rose the unleavened hatred of 
-le executive heart, and at that institution, which has been 
' jmonstrated to be white and spotless, and immoveable, as 
the marble pillais which adorn and support it, the execu- 
tive arm aimed a furious blow, intended for its utter demo- 
iition. Thrice was it armed, for it had its quarrel just. — 
The consequence has been, that the poisoned weapon, has 
glanced aside, but alas ! fellow citizens, it is now fixed, and 
quivering in the vitals of the community. 

In vain, after these things, shall we indulge in the fond 
hope of peace and reconciliation ; there is no longer any 
room for hope. Who would have dreamed a few years since, 
tliat the very words uttered by one of the sages of our revo- 
intion, would have applied to our own chief magistrate, and 



16 

to our times. What, fellow citizens, have we to oppose this 
whirlwind of executive usurpation? Shall we try argument? 
We have been trying that for the last four years. Have we 
any thing new to offer upon that subject? Nothing — we 
have held the subject up in every view in which it was ca- 
pable, but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to en- 
treaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find 
that have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I be- 
seech you, deceive ourselves longer. We have done every 
thing that could be done to avert the storm that is coming 
on. We have petitioned, we have remonstrated, we have 
prostrated ourselves before the throne, and implored its inter- 
position to arrest the tyrannical hands of a cursed, irrespon- 
sible cabal; — our petitions have been slighted — our remon- 
strances have produced additional violence and insult — our 
supplications have been disregarded, and our committees 
have been spurned with contempt from the foot of the throne. 
Fellow citizens, awake from your slumbers — rally your 
party from the east and from the west, from the north and 
from the south; — stand together, shoulder to shoulder, as in 
the days of the revolution, and with individual and combined 
eflbrt, banish "the Goths," and Vandals, and Gauls, "from 
Kome," with Brennus at their head, whom as yet our Senate 
alone has manfully resisted. Restore your Coustitution to 
its purity, and your country to her place among the nations 
of the earth. Accomplish this, fellow citizens, and then 
that last drop of executive usurpation which caused the wa- 
ters of a nation's bitterness to overflow, will have been as 
dew to the tender flower, and rain to the mown grass. 
Then the shock our country has received will have been 
but a healthful agitation, and the recoil of our national pros- 
perity will have been but the stepping back of the mighty 
<jiant — the harbinger of future success and victory. 



1/ 

Redress your wrono-s through the silent agency of tiie 
ballot box; — the ballot box, which is more efficient in re- 
storing civil liberty than the cartridge box; — the ballot box, 
which like the noiseless, steady, temperate operations oi 
nature, nothing can successfully resist; — the ballot box, 
which like the coffin, addresses itself in a scarce audible 
whisper, but which strikes terror through the stoutest heart; 
— the ballot box, whose agency is calm as the breeze, ye: 
dreadful as the storm. 

Friends and fellow citizens, when I cast my eyes over 
this multitude, I behold many men who are aged and expe- 
rienced, and who are my superiors; men to whom 1 would 
proudly and cheerfully look up for instruction as their pupij, 
it is not peculiarly to them that I address myself, but it is 
chiefly to.ttie young men, to their sons. To you. youno" men, 
i call — you of my own age, my neighbors, my companions, 
brothers; youth has its energies, age has its experience. 
Were lour energies and experience born twins, what gods 
we might become ; but alas, it, is otherwise. Our energies 
are our own ; let us take advantage of older men's expen- 
ence ; let us borrow from them that which is not born with 
^ us, and what we cannot beget. 

Young men, companions, what have we been doing? Are 
we not at best triflers? Is not the pt^Iitlcal harvest plente- 
ous? Is not our beloved country cursed with venerabJe 
villains, hoary with prescriptive years? Are we too younoi.-. 
save our country? Are tliere no bright examples before u,*^ 

Cato the younger was but fourteen years old, when he 
demanded a sword with which to kill Sylla — Sylia, who was 
a tyrant and dicttitor, and wdiom the people feared even 
more than they hated; and when in riper years he was m. 
able. to restore his country's lost liberties, he committed a*' 
iciu?, leT.ermined net io anvvivs-iier. l 

32 I 



18 

Pompey, at the age of twenty-five, was sent into Africa 
against Domitius, and conquered him. 

Cicero was but a youth when he gave his country earnest 
')f future usefulness, in liberating his friend by his eloquence 
— and he was not very far advanced in life, when he de- 
tected and overthrew the conspiracy of Cataline. 

Scipio was but a youth when he marched, a successful 
:^eneral, at the head of armies. 

Alexander was but a stripling, when he entertained, in 
the absence of his father, the Persian ambassadors. 

Napoleon was in his noviciate when he was declared First 
Consul, and was but a young man, when, like Hannibal, 
he hewed his way over the Alps, and conquered mighty na- 
ture, as well as man. 

I will not insult my country by bringing illustrations from 
distant climes, or ancient days. 

Our own beloved Washington was but a "buckskin," 
when wuthin cannon-fire of this very spot, he gave counsel 
to an experienced general ; and had that counsel been com- 
plied with, would our country's history ever have been 
blotted with the defeat of Braddock's Field? 

Hamilton was but a youth when by his talents and con- 
duct, he endeared himself to the Father of his Country, and 
astonished the political world with the maturity of his jud 
mcnt and the splendor of his essays. 

Lafayette was scarce of age when he left the friends of 
his youth, and the wife of his bosom, and the fields of his 
own country, to strike for liberty in ours. 

Clay was but a boy, when, fired with divine ambition, 
ho poied over his books while he worked for bread. Look 
at him now I behold this orphan boy ! He Ras blown a 
blast upon the silver trumpet of liberty, so loud and clear, 
that tyrants have started frouj thsirdens, and looked wildly 



It 

round, and grasped the sword, when no foe but conscience 
was at hand. His musical voice has found an echo in the 
Emerald Isle ; it has found a response in the bosoms of his 
countrymen ; it has reverberated along the shores of South 
America, and died in thunders among the Andes. 

Look at Webster, running ragged and barefoot on the 
banks of the Merrimack, and over the hills of New Hamp- 
shire. — The goddess ol Liberty threw her mantle over him 
while a youth. Look, I say, dud try if you can see half way to 
the top of it. Look at the granite pyiamid of Fame he has 
thiown up for himself, until the clouds are torn as they float 
far beneath its apex ; and it will stand forever, for it is ba- 
sed on constitutional law and rational liberty. 

Friends, companions, ifj the race of useful men be com- 
ing extinct ? and is the spirit of an honest ambition at an 
end? Does not our bleeding country, call for the services 
of the young Whigs of 1834, as loudly as she called for the 
young W^higs of '76. I ask you, putting myself amongyou, 
and at the same tim'^j professing to be the humblest of you 
ail, could ' the finger of Washington, (were he permitted 
to visit oyr earth, and lead his country through the present 
crisis,) could his discriminating judgment, point out in 
the city of Pittsburgh, fifty young men, superior, or equal, 
to some of those great names I have enumerated ? do you 
think could he point out ten ? could he with all his sym- 
pathies in our favor, considering that the site of our city 
was the scene of his first enterprise and glory, could he 
point out five? Monsters of self delusion, and puerile 
vanity, could he find one ? 

Is it possible, that man — that miracle of nature — that 
wonder of wondeis— the image of God — that ray of divinity, 
should go sneaking to his grave at this pitiful rate? 



20 

I have too long" lived a cmvard in my own esteem, and 
I now blush for my young frifnuls, as well as for myself. — 
What! shall vice and infamy cfily be prolific and precocious; 
and shall virtue and honor, find no tongue, or sword, to an- 
swer it?. What! shall Jacksonism spawn and litter in our 
streets, and must there be a C/Csarean operation before the 
fragments of one Whiss^ can bi5 rallied to our ranks? 

Young Gentlemen, profane Dot the lips of your wives, 
pollute not the lips of your sisters or your mothers, with the, 
infection of your kiss, until you have expelled the barba- 
rians, the harpies, the money changers, wRo^ have profaned 
the sacred temple of our liberties,! nd made it a thoroughfare 
for political gamblers, and a den of thieves. How respond 
your hearts? dare they falter ? The immortal spirits of La- 
fayette and Washington, are at this moment above us, an(t 
mock us from the clouds. 

Let us not rot like weeds, on Lethe's wharf. Let u?. 
do honor to our beloved city ; that she may not heu - 
after, when her industry is Daraiyzed, become the habita- 
tion of owls and cf bats, but as she ought to be, and as 
she shall be, throned on her waters and hills : like Venice, 
and like Rome mistress m size, in strength, and wraith, ♦ 
of the vast valley of the Mississippi. That valley, which 
is destined to sustain upon its broad, distended bosom, 
more inhabitants than E-ussia, the arch of whose empire 
spans two continents, can boast. 

Let us accomplish these things, young gentlemen, and 
then, but not till then, let the shout of your triumph, rend 
the old curtain of the azure sky. Then, but not till the^r., 
let the voice of your jubilee reverberate against the clouds, 
until it mocks the deep mouthed thunder. Then, but not 
till then, let the peal of your patriotic anthem, sweep over 
the land and over the sea, scaring old echo from his sob- 



21 

tudesj and making your ocean shores,tremble in then hollow 
caves. Start into convulsive life, rally, fly, to the rescue of 
your constitution, dispute every inch of ground, fight for 
every blade of grass, immolate the enemies of your consti- 
tution, before they contaminate the soil of your country, and 
let the last intrenchment of constitutional liberty be your 
graves. 

"Where rests the sword? Where sleep the brave? 
Awake ! Cecropia's ally save 
From the fury of the blast ; 
Burst the st(»rm on Phocis' walls ; 
Rise I or Greece torever falls, 
Strike ! or Freedom breathes her last." 



3 *Q/i(l 



